The Queen put on a brave face, smiled and told well-wishers yesterday: "My mother had a wonderful life."

The Queen put on a brave face, smiled and told well-wishers yesterday: "My mother had a wonderful life."

At Windsor Castle, surveying a sea of flowers left in the Queen Mother's memory, the Queen said: "It's an amazing sight, isn't it? People are so kind."

More than 2,000 bouquets have been placed on the lawn outside St George's Chapel where the Queen Mother's body will be interred on Tuesday.

It was the first time since her mother died on Saturday that the Queen had joined members of the public mourning the royal death.

Speaking to a group of mourners, she said: "My mother lived to 101, which is a great age - she had a wonderful life."

Dressed in black, the Queen spent several minutes with the Duke of Edinburgh looking at the flowers and condolence messages left by people from all over the world.

"They're from everywhere, you know - America, Australia, New Zealand and Canada," the Queen told Philip, who wore a black tie and brown shoes.

The royal couple went inside St George's Chapel, where preparations for Tuesday's private committal service and interment are already under way, to look at a book of condolence which some 7,000 people have signed since Monday.

Earlier, Buckingham Palace announced that princes William and Harry would walk behind their great-grandmother's coffin when it is drawn through the streets of the capital today in a spectacular military procession.

In a break with royal tradition, the Princess Royal will also join the procession, a ceremony usually reserved for royal men.

Fourteen senior members of the Royal Family will walk behind the coffin on its 28-minute journey from the Queen's Chapel at St James's Palace, central London, to Westminster Hall.

Peter Phillips, the Princess Royal's son and the Queen Mother's great-grandson, will be in the procession. Others walking behind the coffin will be the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, the Earl of Wessex, Viscount Linley, the Duke of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent, Prince Michael of Kent, the Princess Royal's husband Commodore Timothy Laurence and Lady Sarah Chatto's husband Daniel.

Lady Sarah, a granddaughter of the Queen Mother, will travel to Westminster Hall with the Queen.

The sight of Prince William, 19, and his 17-year-old brother Prince Harry, walking behind the Queen Mother's coffin will bring back memories of their mother Diana, Princess of Wales's funeral procession five years ago.

Relatives of the Queen Mother from the Bowes Lyon family will also walk behind the coffin which will be borne by a horse-drawn gun carriage.

With the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, Simon Bowes Lyon and the Hon Albemarle Bowes Lyon will be 15-year-old Lord Glamis, thought to be the youngest person in the procession.

A full-scale rehearsal of the procession was staged as dawn broke over the streets of the capital yesterday.

The 1,600 troops taking part began amassing around St James's Palace in the early hours of the morning and the procession began to move at 6am as the sun came up.

In terms of pomp and ceremony, the funeral procession will be bigger than the royal funeral for Diana, Princess of Wales five years ago and is the largest pageant of its sort on Britain's streets since the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965.

Meanwhile, prayers were being said around the clock at the Queen Mother's coffin.

Resting in the historic Queen's Chapel at St James's Palace, the coffin is always attended.

Clergy, led by the Sub Dean of the Chapels Royal, the Rev Willie Booth, pray from the King James Bible and Book of Common Prayer, the two foundations of the Church of England.

In turn, Mr Booth, Priests-in-Ordinary and a representative of the College of Queen's Chaplains, kneel at a small prayer desk before the coffin.

Shrouded in her distinctive royal standard, the coffin of Windsor oak is surmounted by a wreath of pink variegated camellias picked from the Queen Mother's garden at Royal Lodge, Windsor.

On the stone floor, at the head of the coffin, is a potted jasmine plant given to his grandmother by the Prince of Wales as an Easter gift before she died.

The fragrance of unbleached beeswax candles, burning on silver-gilt candle holders, mingles with the smell of fresh flowers, including blooms from the Queen Mother's London garden at Clarence House.

The Queen Mother's coffin rests in the same spot where, just seven weeks ago, her daughter Princess Margaret's coffin rested.

It is placed before the 17th-century chapel altar and beneath a painting of the Virgin and Child with Saints Joseph, John the Baptist and Catherine, ascribed to Annibale Caracci, from the collection of King Charles I.

On the altar are three silver-gilt plates.

Two 1661 Charles II plates flank the larger Coronation Plate of Charles II, chased by Swiss craftsman Wolfgang Howzer and which has graced every coronation since the Restoration.

Six large candles burn on 1662 Restoration silver-gilt holders from the Tower of London, part of the Chapels Royal sacramental plate, on 1717 George I holders by Benjamin Pyne, and on the altar, in two candlesticks, made by Robert Smithier and bearing the monogram of James, Duke of York.

Two large arrangements of white blooms, including some from the garden at Clarence House, stand either side of the coffin. The fragrant flowers feature roses, stocks and gardenias.

Elsewhere there are multi-coloured Easter arrangements.

Sir Trevor leads way

Sir Trevor McDonald was last night named as the presenter who will lead ITV1's live coverage of The Queen Mother's funeral on Tuesday.

He will front the output for the channel as it follows the movements of the coffin and the funeral service at Westminster Abbey.

ITV1 will also monitor the funeral cortege as it heads to Windsor Castle for the Queen Mother's burial.

Other well-known ITV faces such as Mary Nightingale will be reporting on the event. John Suchet will provide the commentary.

David Dimbleby, who will lead much of the BBC1 funeral coverage, was today announced as the chairman of the judging panel for a major book prize.

He will head the team of judges for the 2002 BBC4 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, which is worth #30,000 to the winner.